E. L. Moore's Earthquake Producer: Now in Living Colour!

All photos courtesy James L. Dixon

I've only seen an old black-and-white photo of this thing and assumed the model was lost to time.

I assumed wrong.

And, as an added bonus, there are operating instructions on the back!

Rube Goldberg, eat your heart out.

You can see the vertical columns are missing from the corners, but at least all the equipment seems to be present and accounted for.

The columns in the old black-and-white photo look rather simple, just cylinders, probably wooden dowels, with squares of wood glued to either end, so restoration wouldn't be difficult. Colour matching could be a little tricky though.

The light still works! 

Speaking of seeing the light, I wonder if this contraption has a bit of Roland Emett in its DNA as well as Rube Goldberg. ELM was a big Roland Emett fan, and maybe ELM's use of 'railways' instead of 'railroads' is a clue. Ok, ELM does slip in a 'railroad' and 'pike' in the instructions, but the use of railway seems more than accidental. Not to mention the crazy vibe fits very well with ELM's Emett fan builds. Well, this is the internet, and that's my contribution to wild speculation for today.